Hi,
Am re-posting here now that someone has pointed out the section to me... Too sleep deprived to find it myself!
Hi,
I'm starting to really struggle with my 6.5m olds multiple night wakings, and issues with resettling. I'm exhausted and though I've tried different things, I'm getting to the point of not being able to see the wood for the trees and am wondering if I'm missing something simple, and if anyone had any tips they may be able to share please!
I was very lucky initially with my little boy, and from 8 weeks he was sleeping 8/9 hours straight and waking for a BF at about 5 a.m. then sleeping again for another 2 hours or so. For the last 2-2.5 months though, I think I am being punished for this as he's waking up usually every hour or two all through the night, often more - usually NOT to feed (he did go through lots of feeding at one stage but thankfully not anymore / at the moment). He has a dummy which I introduced due to bad eczema on his hand, reflux and listening to well meaning advice about helping him to ss. Now I think the dummy is probably one of the main problems, when he wakes he needs to suck back to sleep, but he often also wakes whilst the dummy is still in and still needs someone to nod back off.
He obviously used to settle himself between cycles when he was going for several hours, and we see him on the video monitor quite a lot, stretching and rubbing his eyes but then dropping back off, however for the most part, this isn't happening during the night and I feel like things are getting worse, not better.
I try rubbing his tummy, dummy, picking him up, cuddling, rocking, feeding (all in stages, if needed, not all at once!) But he wakes up so quickly after going back down, often before I've nodded back off myself.
I've been trying to encourage ss, and usually put him down when very drowsy, though in the night I'm the first to admit this often goes to pot if he won't fall back asleep in his cot as I'm just desperate to get back to bed myself. Likewise, I'm trying to gradually remove the dummy but it all falls apart in the night.
He doesn't appear to be too hot or cold, he seems happy in his cot - he wakes up happy in the morning and after decent naps, and though he burps the odd time when being picked up, on the whole I wouldn't say it's something like wind disturbing him.
I know there is teething, weaning, developmental leaps etc. etc. but if there is something I'm missing that could help both him and me I would love to hear it as it's starting to stress me out a bit sad
We have co-slept the odd time recently which has massively helped, we've both slept better, but it wasn't really something I wanted to do regularly - particularly as it's felt a bit squished with my H too so he's ended up in the spare room! Am unsure whether to go with it or if I'll regret introducing yet another, and fairly big sleep prop, further down the line.
Thank you and sorry for the ramble.